Timothy's birthday

I remember my 6th birthday. I remember the scooter with the giant wheels and the freedom I felt navigating our brand new neighborhood with it. I remember my hair pulled up in a ponytail, and that there were enough strands falling out of the elastic that I had to stop my scooter every once in a while to brush the loose hairs away from my eyes and my lips. I remember what my mother looked like that day... her golden hair curled away from her face and her red, shiny lips, always parted in a smile, framing her perfectly white teeth, and in that smile I believed that all the love in the world belonged to me that day...

6 year old birthdays are magic.

This year it was Timothy's turn to have one. And, let me tell you, he deserves every bit of birthday magic. He has a gift in being able to fill places with love, and we benefit from that all the time. In fact, I frequently get comments from school parents about how Timothy has a special place in the heart of their son or daughter, and I'm not ever one bit surprised. So it was a great thing to celebrate his birthday and make him feel as special as we could for a whole entire day.

And, as luck would have it, his birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which made it extra perfect because Daddy was there for all of it.

We opened presents early, and everything was a dream come true. Six year olds are my favorite that way.

After presents, we headed to Shark Reef. Yep, he was just there the month before, but it had been such a hit for him as his Christmas present that he wanted nothing more than to share it with the rest of the family.

While Brian stood in line to get us tickets, the kids and I walked around the Casino and happened upon a window with gorgeous light streaming in. I immediately wanted a Birthday Picture with all the kids, which ended up not being much of a Birthday Picture since the Birthday Boy wanted nothing to do with the camera.

And that mentality lasted for most of the rest of the day. Any time I pulled the camera out, he would slink away and sulk, seeming to think, I can't believe she wants to take pictures today of all days. Doesn't she know it's my birthday?

McKenzie tried to convince him to come in for just one shot, but he would not have it.

Which was fine. I had other cute subjects to work with.

Eliza doesn't like to go many places without her blanket. And McKenzie will often tie it around her like a cloak, which she loves. Also pictured above, the boys wrestling. Always.

After the tickets were purchased, we found our way inside and Timothy began leading us in an official tour of the place. He is an expert, of course, because, he was here last month.

Again, I tried to get a picture of Timothy with the kids.

So then I decided to honor his birthday wish and stop trying to get him to cooperate for a picture. And I focused most of my picture taking efforts on the littlest of the bunch who, along with Baby, was absolutely enamored with all of the ocean life.

She couldn't stop pointing and watching and gasping. Adorable.

And I eventually sneaked in a picture of Timothy without him seeing.

Screens have the effect of making him oblivious to his surroundings, you know.

Eventually we had seen all the things we could see and it was time to head out to his favorite lunch spot, Zupas, to continue the celebration. After one pause at the friendly turtle for a family picture which consisted of Timothy burying his head in defiance against the picture, and Eliza screaming her protests, and Miles poking the poor friendly turtle in the eye, and the mother of the family completely missing, we were on our way.

I promise we were all happy - it's jut that the camera somehow made everyone so unhappy that you wouldn't know it from the pictures.

By the time we made it to Zupas and filled our stomachs with soups and salads and sandwiches, Timothy had stopped resenting the idea of a picture quite so strongly, and even conceded to get one picture of all the kids before McKenzie and I headed off to her volleyball tournament for the rest of the afternoon.

So much love in this picture.

Kenz and I then went to her tournament where I watched her play three games (which they lost, unfortunately) and then we rushed home to do cake.

For his cake, Timothy requested 'a Mario cake in the shape of a 6 with a 6 poking up, and, like, with a track for Mario Kart and lots of the characters'.

Bless that internet. I barely had to lift a creative finger.

I knew our Birthday Saturday was going to be full of chaos and fun, so I made his cake the night before and let it sit out in the open air all night and throughout the whole next day.

I know you're probably thinking this was a terrible idea because dried out birthday cake is disgusting. But see, birthday cakes are less like a dessert and more like a decoration and a show of love around here. Around here we think that un-dried-out birthday cake isn't really all that much better than disgusting, anyway. And so, figuring out how to wrap up something like that when we weren't even going to eat it seemed like quite a waste of time.

When we walked in the door we were happy to find the whole place teeming with kids and energy. It was a fun change of pace to have Brian in charge of birthday hours and he did a great job. A couple of the friends stayed to sing happy birthday and to have a cupcake or two or three - and no one seemed to care at all that the cake was a little extra crispy.

He is such a loved little boy! And at the end of the day, he went to bed feeling all that love and feeling quite a bit older.